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Student opera company wins Welsh Future Entrepreneur Award

A student opera company from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama has won this year’s Welsh Future Entrepreneur Award in Cardiff.

Beating nine other finalists to the top prize, Dragon Opera’r Ddraig was selected for their commitment to providing a professional development platform that serves young musicians and technicians across Wales.

As well as a trophy and cash prize of £1,000, the Award will entitle Dragon Opera’r Ddraig to a business support package that music director, Alasdair Cowie-Fraser, says will be “invaluable to the future of the company”.

Dragon Opera’r Ddraig’s first production was staged earlier this year and featured cast members who have since gone on to sing for Welsh National Opera and Prague State Opera.

The company is currently working on a new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro that will receive its premiere in Cardiff on 1 February 2011.

Renée Fleming joins forces with the Lyric Opera of Chicago

Soprano Renée Fleming has been appointed as the first ever Creative Consultant of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with a seat as Vice President on the company’s Board of Directors.

Lasting for an initial period of five years, Fleming’s new role is expected to span a wide range of artistic, educational, strategic partnership and promotional initiatives, including curating a world premiere commission for the company’s 2015-16 season.

She also will continue to appear in concerts and productions by the company, as well as developing a range of non-operatic and off-season performances at Chicago’s Civic Opera House.

Paying tribute to the Lyric Opera’s “renowned top-drawer management and highest artistic standards”, Fleming said that her interest in “joining forces with Lyric” was also driven by the fact that fiscal prudence combined with aggressive marketing and fundraising have kept the company “in excellent financial shape”.

She added: “The ship is airtight, the economic storm is subsiding, and it’s time to take those brave steps forward and tackle the challenges facing opera today.”

L’Opéra National de Lorraine appoints new music director

Tito Muñoz has been appointed as music director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy, effective from June 2011.

The 27-year-old American conductor recently completed a three year-tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

He made his operatic debut with the Opéra National de Lorraine in 2009, conducting Caballero’s Romantic zarzuela, Los sobrinos del Capitán Grant.

Muñoz’s first performance in his new role will be an orchestral concert on 23 June, featuring works by Grieg and Copland.

Commemorative plaque to D'Oyly Carte unveiled in London

Richard D’Oyly Carte been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at his former home in Kentish Town, London, where he lived from 1860-70.

The opera impresario and hotelier, who died in 1901, was the driving force behind the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He became the duo’s theatrical agent in 1875 and by 1880 the three men’s shared annual profits were over £60,000 (equivalent to more than £3 million today).

Carte’s Savoy Theatre opened in 1881 and was the world’s first public building to be lit entirely with electricity. This venture generated enough profit to build the Savoy Hotel next door in 1889.

Describing D’Oyly Carte as “a shrewd businessman and outstanding stage manager”, English Heritage’s Blue Plaques Historian, Dr Susan Skedd, added that he “was unrivalled in his day as a theatrical manager and will be the first opera impresario to be honoured with a blue plaque.”

The plaque was unveiled on 14 December by British film director, Mike Leigh, who made the 1999 Academy Award-winning drama Topsy-Turvey about Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.

News round-up – 9 December 2010

BBC Radio 3 has announced a 12-day season of Mozart broadcasts beginning on 1 January 2011. 8 January has been designated ‘Opera Day’ and will feature Dame Kiri te Kanawa introducing her favourite Mozart arias plus a Mozart opera matinée broadcast of Così fan Tutte. Other opera highlights from the season include Don Giovanni from Vienna State Opera on 1 January and The Abduction from the Seraglio on 7 January.

This year’s US$100,000 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition has been won by Louis Andriesson for his opera, La commedia. Based on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, La commedia received its world premiere at the 2008 Holland Festival. Previous winners of the Award, which was established in 1985 by the University of Louisville, have included Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle and John Adams.

With preparations for the company’s move to Wormsley Estate in Buckinghamshire still underway, Garsington Opera has announced a 2011 Season that includes the UK premiere of Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento, directed by David Freeman and conducted by Lawrence Cummings. New productions of The Magic Flute and Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia are also planned.

Scottish Opera’s children’s opera James Watt: A Head of Steam by Karen MacIver has received the British Composer Award 2010 for a Community or Educational Project. Based on the life and work of the Scottish inventor and engineer, James Watt, the original project involved over one hundred and sixty children from Inverclyde near Glasgow.

STREETWISE OPERA TO STAGE LONDON WORLD PREMIEREFables – A Film Opera – 17 December 2010

A newly commissioned opera by the ground-breaking opera and homelessness charity, Streetwise Opera, will receive its world premiere at London’s Shoreditch Church on 17 December. Fables – A Film Opera promises to span the genres of folk, electronica and film, comprising four short films interspersed with live performances by over 100 Streetwise Opera volunteers and community participants.

AUSTRALIAN PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST iPAD OPERAEXILE – available to download from 10 December 2010

Australia’s Chamber Made Opera has teamed up with the cross-artform collective, Aphids, to create the world’s first iPad opera. An interactive application based on Helen Gifford’s EXILE will be available to download for free from 10 December onwards.

The 2010 Gerald Moore Award for accompanists has been won by 25-year-old British pianist, Timothy End. The Royal Academy Graduate accompanied baritone Jonathan McGovern in the biannual competition’s recent final.